Commando Raid

 Book 4 Chapter 5: The Commando Raid

  “The Commando Raid” was the highlight of the week for many of the campers. It was all that they talked about from the moment that they arrived at camp until their parents came to pick them up. The game was started when everyone met at the campfire ring and then each tribe was given a clue that led them to a different part of the camp. It could be the swimming pool or the ball field, for example. There were six clues and if your tribe was able to collect all six before time was up then you won your part of the game. If all of the tribes were able to get their clues then the campers had the bragging rights to be able to say that were the first to ever beat the counselors. The game was rigged however, so that the campers never beat the counselors. Fr. Hemmerle was the only one who knew how to score the game so he made sure that the counselors always won.

One of the ways that the game was rigged is that not all of the campers were worth the same amount of points. A first year camper was only worth one point but, the more seniority that you had, the more points that you were worth. A camper who had been coming back to Camp Tall Trees for five years would be worth a hundred points. These were the campers that the counselors were determined to “capture.” In order to capture a camper the counselor merely had to tap him and say “you are caught.” Since Fr. Hemmerle had told the chiefs to have the kids lie down in the woods whenever they saw a counselor because he didn’t want anyone running away, capturing the high points campers was relatively easy. Everyone knew who the high value campers were because Fr. Hemmerle had put up a “Ten Most Wanted” list up on the bulletin board. It was considered a high honor to make the list and by the time of the beginning of the game, everyone knew who was on the list.

Denny loved the Commando Raid. During the off season he collected a bunch of gear to help him be a better chief during the raid. For example, he bought camouflage vests and combat gear from the army surplus store in Brandenburg. The softball games were right after dinner so Denny rushed his campers to the ball field and had them run through drills, like learning how to shimmy on the ground so that they could sneak up to the target to find a clue. He got to the campfire ring early and had all of his campers put ashes onto their faces. During the raid itself, Denny insisted that there was “no talking in the ranks” whenever they came in range of a camper-capturing counselor. And his tribe learned how to protect the campers on the ten most wanted list, mostly by sacrificing a first year camper. Denny knew that once a camper had been captured then the counselor had to escort him to the jail, or the main parking lot, where Fr. Hemmerle was waiting for them.

Fr. Hemmerle also liked to gin up the game. Every camper who landed in jail had a star stamped on their face. It was just an ink stamper but it took on magical powers at Tall Trees. You had one star stamped on your face for every point that you were worth. If a chief happened to be by the jail on his way to get his next clue then he could do a “jail break.” This entailed no more than running through the jail, tagging the captured campers out, and then moving on to the next objective. What this really meant was that the high valued campers could be caught several times and by the end of the game their face was filled with blue stars. To pour a little salt into the wound, Fr. Early chided the campers who were caught multiple times and made sure that the stamp was well inked before he applied it to their face.

Some of the counselors really got excited about the raid as well. They were forced to carry a big lantern with them so that that they could be spotted about a mile away. Then, when they did approach a tribe, who by this time was hiding off the trail and in the woods, they pretended that the light from the lantern was in their eyes so they could not possibly see the campers who were lying on the ground. Scott Hancock liked to bring an old shampoo bottle with him that he filled with warm water. While

the camper had his face buried in his arms to hide from the counselors, Scott would take out the bottle and squeeze it so that a steady stream landed on the back of the unsuspecting camper. The boy would jump up and scream until Scott showed him the bottle to let the camper know that it was just water, and not urine, that was streaming down his back. And by the way, “you are captured,” and the boy was sent to jail.

Other counselors were not into the game at all. Hawkeye said that the raid was too militaristic and, since he was a pacifist, he took his lantern off to a corner of the camp and refused to participate. Hawkeye stuck with his story but the rest of the counselors suspected that he was just too lazy to walk around the camp for an hour. Probably the real reason was somewhere in the middle of these two stories. Hawkeye didn’t want to be the bad guy and he would be forced into that role if he captured campers and sent them to jail. Rather than spoil everyone else’s fun, and not to make a show of his protest because that wasn’t his way, Hawkeye put himself in time out.

Another way that the game was rigged was because it was the chiefs who dropped clues at each station. The trick was to drop the clues without any of the campers noticing but also they had to make sure that the campers could find the clue. This took a little bit of artfulness in that the counselors had to hide the clue in their hand and drop it while sweeping the field in a dramatic arm swing. The older campers knew that the game was a farce and part of the fun for them was to catch their chief dropping the clue. The younger campers had no idea that the game wasn’t real but they were so scared of the dark that didn’t notice anything except how scary the woods looked in the dark.

The Commando Raid was over after an hour of play. Hawkeye rang the Gong to signal that the game was over and everyone should come out of the woods. There was a collective cheer from the campers, especially the ones who had not been captured, when they thought that they had won. The chiefs led their tribes back up to the campfire ring and Fr. Early marched the POWs up from the jail. When everyone was re-united, Fr. Hemmerle read out the results of which tribe collected all six clues and which campers had been captured. And, after carefully tallying up the points, he declared that, once again, the counselors had won the game. Of course there were boos from the boys and bragging from the counselors and a lot of pointing fingers. It was all in good fun and it was a win for everyone since no camper had been hurt and no camper had been lost. The game was designed to secure the safety of all of the boys.

Taoism

 I recently finished reading “Judgment at Tokyo” and, at the very end of the book, there was a section on Prime Minister Tojo Hideki. The trial was over and Tojo was sentenced to be hanged. In his cell, and after a lifetime dedicated to violence, the former general spent his last days in ascetic spiritual contemplation by composing poems. He studied a Buddhist book on the holy scriptures and wanted to take the volume with him to the gallows. My thought is that if a monster like Tojo could change his mindset in his final days then surely I could do so as well.

I have been studying Taoism, which is a close relative of Buddhism, and a key component of it is zen, or tranquility. And in that tranquility, the Tao, or “the way” is within you, and the only path to reaching it is through effortlessness. Taoism teaches us that good and evil are irrelevant and that we, as people, are irrelevant. There is no fear of death, nor hope of an afterlife, so we are free from the impediments of happiness or the need for salvation. The creative power of the Tao is in its quality of emptiness. Taoists act in a way that does not come from personal desire but by emulating the empty qualities of life. Non-doing is effective because Taoists are unambitious and not bothered by fame, rules, or social obligations. I can relate to these ideas because I wasted a lot of time and energy by trying to become a legend at Sacred Heart. Also, I made a fool out of myself by campaigning to get the teacher of the year award. I would have been a lot happier if I didn’t desire awards or affirmation that was never going to happen.

I am not a convert, as my Catholic faith means a lot to me, but I do think that I can learn from some of the lessons of Taoism. For example, I am trying to unlearn what I know and am intentionally striving to forget. There is no reason for me to cling to my old thoughts as I have obsessed over them before and, for mental health reasons, there is no use in re-thinking them. It is time to let go. Similarly, Taoists are peaceful and calm people, and they strive to live in harmony with the universe. They live a life that is simple and uncomplicated. Unknowingly, when my wife and I retired, we took on the ideas of the Taoists by moving into a small condominium and living simply, while I have tried to obtain peace by ridding myself of my type A, controlling personality. It is a struggle to let go but inner peace is worth the effort.

If Buddhism states that the way to happiness is to release ourselves from desire, then a central tenet of Taoism is reaching contentedness through non-doing. I am fully retired and my contentedness comes from knowing that I was a teacher for 35 years. I am proud of my career and that can never be taken away from me. Some people want to guilt me into re-entering the working world but I am perfectly happy practicing non-doing. I swim in the morning and take a long walk in the afternoon and I read a lot. This is enough to help me stay sharp and healthy. My daily routine is not for everybody but it is enough for me at this point in my life.

My interest in Taoism was reignited because I just finished reading “Shogun” by James Clavell and have been watching the new mini-series which is based on the book. One of the lessons that I took away from the novel is that Japan has always been a very crowded nation. There is no solitude while living in a paper house so the Japanese have learned from a very young age how to hide beneath a mask of smiles and manners. There is an invisible fence of privacy that cannot be penetrated by outsiders as the Japanese conceal their inner thoughts through politeness. I think that we all put up a front and, like the Japanese, we do not engage with others because we are too busy or just don’t want to be bothered. It sounds like a lonely way to live.